I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Chapter 29 Summary
- The house that Daddy Clidell bought is huge. It has fourteen rooms, and they're all filled with random tenants.
- Daddy Clidell is the polar opposite of Daddy Bailey. At first, Maya thought he was just like all of Vivian's other boyfriends and tried to ignore him. But it turns out he was just too cool to ignore.
- Daddy Clidell takes Maya under his wing and introduces her to the black underground so she can learn how not to get tricked by conmen. Sounds important.
- Then we get to hear Mr. Red Leg's favorite con story, which is told in his voice—it sounds just like an old conman talking.
- Here's how it went down: There was a white man conning a lot of black men, and Daddy Clidell's friends decided to check him out.
- Apparently, this guy hated black people and Native Americans like crazy, which made him a perfect mark. Daddy Clidell's friends told him that a half-black, half-Indian man had some land that a Northerner wanted to buy. But they asked him if he wanted to buy the land instead since they could trust him. Of course he wanted it.
- They led him on until he got anxious about the whole thing, and then they took his money and ran.
- After hearing this story, Maya reflects on the ethics of the whole thing. These black men were put in a tough situation, so we can't judge them by the same standards.
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